Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 6, No. 0192. Thursday, 9 March 1995.
From: Michael Swanson <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 8 Mar 1995 23:54:53 -0500
Subject: E-mail censorship
[This message appeared on ARTMGT-L<ARTMGT-L%This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
--HMC]
PLEASE WIDELY REDISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT WITH THIS BANNER INTACT
DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE AFTER MAY 1, 1995
Feb. 22, 1995
[updated Mar. 3 to include House version's bill number]
Distributed by the Voters Telecommunications Watch (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
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[In order to use the net more effectively, the following organizations have
joined forces on a single Congressional net campaign to stop the
Communications Decency Act, S. 314 & H.R. 1004 (in alphabetical order):
the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU),
the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT),
the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF),
the Electronic Frontier Foundation-Austin (EFF-Austin),
(Note that EFF-Austin is not a chapter of the DC-based EFF)
the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC),
the Hands Off! the Net petition drive,
the People for the American Way (PFAW),
the Society for Electronic Access (SEA), and
the Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW)
These organizations are using the Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW)
as a conduit for legislative feedback. When you contact Congress about the
Communications Decency Act and send your feedback to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., that
information is being fed back to all participating organizations.
If your organization would like to signon to this campaign and receive
legislative feedback, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
-Shabbir]
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CONTENTS
Introduction
What you can do
Contact Information
Background
Current status of S. 314
Where can I learn more about the bill? (URL included)
Where will I learn about updates to this alert?
Current list of participating organizations
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INTRODUCTION
Dear Net Citizens:
Legislation has been introduced before the Senate which would severely restrict
your freedom of speech, halt the free flow of information on the net, and
require all telecommunications carriers to censor your public and private
communications.
The "Communications Decency Act of 1995" (S. 314), introduced in early February
by Senators Exon (D-NE) and Gorton (R-WA), would place substantial criminal
liability on telecommunications carriers (including traditional telephone
networks, Internet service providers, commercial online services such as
America Online and Compuserve, and independent BBS's) whenever their networks
are used to transmit any material which is deemed indecent or harassing. In
order to avoid these penalties, carriers would be forced to restrict the
activities of their subscribers and censor all public and private
communications.
We must act quickly to stop the progress of S. 314. The bill may soon be
incorporated into Senate telecommunications reform legislation, which is
currently being drafted by the Senate Commerce Committee. The
telecommunications reform bill may be introduced as early as mid March, and is
expected to be considered on a fast track. If S. 314 is included in this bill,
it will be extremely difficult to change or remove and could pass quickly.
We are asking you to join us in urging key members of the Senate to prevent S.
314 from being included in Senate telecommunications reform measures and to
hold open, public hearings on the issue.
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WHAT YOU CAN DO (IN ONLY FIVE MINUTES)
1. Contact Sen. Larry Pressler (R-SD, Commerce Committee Chairman),
Sen. Bob Packwood (R-OR) and Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-SC, ranking
member) and urge them to keep S.314 from being incorporated into
telecommunications reform legislation. You'll find their addresses,
phone numbers, and fax numbers below.
Also, if you live in:
AK AZ HI KY LA MA ME MO MS MT ND NE NV OR SC SD TX WA WV
you should also contact your own Senator from the Commerce committee.
Remember, the best and most effective means of influencing a member of
Congress is to write a letter in your own words.
2. Write/Fax/Email them a letter or make a phone call. Try to mention
as as many of the points below (marked with a *) as you can fit
politely into communication.
3. DON'T FORGET TO DROP A NOTE TO This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to tell us who you contacted.
We'll tally the results and feed them back to all participating
organizations. It's crucial we have this feedback, even if you just
got a form letter, or a "thank you" to your phone call.
4. Feel good about yourself. You've just participated in democracy
without leaving your seat.
5. (Extra bonus activism) Reproduce this alert with the expiration date
and contact information intact to other non-Usenet places. Fax it
to your friends, post a copy to your local bulletin board. Please don't
spam it to places like rec.pets.cats, but place it in places where people
who don't read a lot of Usenet might see it. Non-net connected BBSs are
great, as are physical bulletin boards. Please don't post it to email
lists or newsgroups not related to politics, as this will annoy people.
Most especially, try to reach people in the larger online services,
such as America OnLine and Compuserve and the large PC networks, such
as Fidonet.
When writing a letter or making a phone call, try to include the following
points in your message:
* S. 314 must not be incorporated into the Senate telecommunications
reform bill.
* The bill would force communications service providers to limit or
remove my access to file archives, discussion forums, and
electronic mail.
* S. 314 would dramatically restrict the free flow of information
through out the online world and limit the free speech and privacy
rights of individual users.
* Placing criminal liability on communications service providers
will force providers to censor the activities of their
subscribers.
* As a user of interactive communications technologies, I am capable
of deciding for myself and for my children what content I wish to
receive. The government should not be involved in deciding what
kinds of content I may access.
* Public hearings must be held to consider possible technological
means and policy alternatives to government content restrictions
in interactive media.
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CONTACT INFORMATION
Here are the Commerce committee members. Please contact Sen. Larry
Pressler (the Committee Chairman) and Sen. Ernest Hollings at a minimum.
If you see your state listed below, contact your own senator as well.
All addresses are Washington, D.C. 20510
P ST Name and Address Phone Fax
= == ======================== ============== ==============
R SD Pressler, Larry 1-202-224-5842 1-202-224-1259*
243 RSOB This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
*Note this is the Commerce Committee's fax number
D SC Hollings, Ernest F. 1-202-224-6121 1-202-224-4293
125 RSOB
R OR Packwood, Robert 1-202-224-5244 1-202-228-3576
259 RSOB
D HI Inouye, Daniel K. 1-202-224-3934 1-202-224-6747
722 HSOB
R AK Stevens, Ted 1-202-224-3004 1-202-224-1044
522 HSOB
D KY Ford, Wendell H. 1-202-224-4343 1-202-224-0046
173A RSOB This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
R AZ McCain, John 1-202-224-2235 1-202-228-2862
111 RSOB
D NE Exon, J. J. 1-202-224-4224 1-202-224-5213
528 HSOB
R MT Burns, Conrad R. 1-202-224-2644 1-202-224-8594
183 DSOB
D WV Rockefeller, John D. 1-202-224-6472 1-202-224-1689
109 HSOB
R WA Gorton, Slade 1-202-224-3441 1-202-224-9393
730 HSOB This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
D MA Kerry, John F. 1-202-224-2742 1-202-224-8525
421 RSOB
R MS Lott, Trent 1-202-224-6253 1-202-224-2262
487 RSOB
D LA Breaux, John B. 1-202-224-4623 1-202-224-2435
516 HSOB
R TX Hutchison, Kay Bailey 1-202-224-5922 1-202-224-0776
703 HSOB This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
D NV Bryan, Richard H. 1-202-224-6244 1-202-224-1867
364 RSOB
R ME Snowe, Olympia 1-202-224-5344 1-202-224-6853
176 RSOB
D ND Dorgan, Byron L. 1-202-224-2551 1-202-224-1193
713 HSOB
R MO Ashcroft, John 1-202-224-6154 1-202-224-7615
170 RSOB
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CURRENT STATUS OF S. 314
The bill was introduced on February 1, 1995 by Senators Exon (D-NE) and Gorton
(R-WA). It is currently pending before the Senate Commerce Committee (chaired
by Senator Pressler (R-SD)).
No committee action has been scheduled as of February 21, 1995.
It may be included in the Senate telecommunications reform legislation,
expected to be introduced by mid-March.
A House of Representatives version of the bill has also been introduced with
almost identical text, as H.R. 1004.
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BACKGROUND
S. 314 would expand current law restricting indecency and harassment on
telephone services to all telecommunications providers and expand criminal
liability to all content carried by all forms of telecommunications networks.
The bill would amend Section 223 of the Communications Act (47 U.S.C. 223),
which requires carriers to take steps to prevent minors from gaining access to
indecent audiotext and criminalizes harassment accomplished over interstate
telephone lines.
If enacted, S. 314 would compel service providers to severely restrict your
online activities. Your access to email, discussion lists, usenet, the world
wide web, gopher, and ftp archives would be substantially reduced or cut off
entirely. The bill would also force providers to closely monitor and pre-screen
your electronic mail, and refuse to transmit any message or other content which
may be considered to be indecent.
This bill poses a significant threat to freedom of speech and the free flow of
information in cyberspace. The bill also raises fundamental questions about the
right of government to control content on communications networks, as well as
the locus of liability for content carried in these new communications media.
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WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BILL? (URL INCLUDED)
The Voters Telecommunications Watch has set up a gopher page where you can get
a copy of the bill (including analyses by the American Civil Liberties Union,
the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Messaging Association,
and others). Here's the URL:
WWW URL: gopher://gopher.panix.com/11/vtw/exon
Gopher command : gopher -p 1/vtw/exon gopher.panix.com
If you have difficulty getting to this gopher page, or if you don't have access
to Mosaic/gopher, drop a note to:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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WHERE WILL I LEARN ABOUT UPDATES TO THIS ALERT?
We will post updates to this alert in three places:
-On the account This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (finger This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
-On Usenet (comp.org.eff.talk, comp.org.cpsr.talk, and alt.privacy)
-Through our announcements mailing list, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
To subscribe, simply send a message to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the
following in the message body:
subscribe vtw-announce Firstname Lastname
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CURRENT LIST OF PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS
At this time, the following organizations have signed onto this campaign and
are receiving the legislative feedback that VTW is compiling:
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Electronic Frontier Foundation-Austin (EFF-Austin), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
(Note that EFF-Austin is not a chapter of the DC-based EFF)
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Hands Off! the Net petition drive, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
People for the American Way (PFAW), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Society for Electronic Access (SEA), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Note that the Voters Telecommunications Watch does not speak for these
organizations. Any opinions contained herein are those of the author, and not
necessarily endorsed by participating organizations.